bruising confirmation fight and some ugly hearings on the hill, the president's choice for defense, chuck hagel, was confirmed today by a 58-41 vote in the senate. he's a former republican senator from nebraska, though some of his roughest treatment was at the hands of fellow republicans. when he walks into the pentagon as the new secretary of defense, he will be the first vietnam veteran to have that job. he still carries shrapnel with him from combat, where he earned two purple hearts. >>> now to the weather, as another big storm pounds the plains and the midwest. you can see it is a huge system, as it sweeps across the country now from west to east. it has dumped more than two feet of snow outside denver. it's caused blizzard conditions through kansas, missouri, oklahoma, and they're having a genuine, classic winter evening in chicago. that's where we find weather channel meteorologist eric fisher on michigan avenue tonight. eric, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we're not seeing those up to hurricane-force gusts that we had across the plains that wreaked havoc yesterday, but